


Reconvene

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, Actor!Gold, Continuation, Convention, F/M, Friendships and Fandoms, Make-Up Artist!Belle, Sequel, Star Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 19:41:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14625678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: A Friendships and Fandoms ‘verse fic. A couple of years after Star Force wraps, Gold is attending his first non-SDCC convention and is slightly worried about it. Luckily, Belle is there to make sure everything goes smoothly.





	Reconvene

By the time they had arrived in Paris and checked into their hotel room, Gold was quite ready to forgo the convention altogether and sleep for a week instead. He’d intended to take Belle out for dinner on their first evening in the city before they got caught up in all the excitement and trepidation of the con, but jetlag and the time difference coming from Boston had caught up with him and his body didn’t know whether he was coming or going.

Ordering a meal from the hotel’s extensive room service menu was going to have to suffice. They’d planned a few extra days in Paris after the convention to do sightseeing before Belle had to be back at the studios for meetings and preparation for new seasons being filmed, so romantic dinners would have to wait until then.

He wandered over to the window, watching the Parisian skyline in the twilight. Belle had gone out to the centre where the convention was being held as she’d promised to meet up with a few of her long-standing fandom friends who had made the trip and would be going for registration before the convention began in the morning. Belle’s role at the convention was a strange one; both guest and visitor. She hadn’t been invited in her own right to meet fans and answer panel questions or the like, but when Gold had asked if he could bring her along as a plus one for moral support, the convention organisers had agreed, letting her have a special pass so that she could enjoy the convention floor as well as chat to everyone in the behind the scenes areas. He knew that it was extremely unorthodox, but at the same time, this was the first convention other than the annual San Diego Comic-Con that he had ever been to, and the thought of it was utterly terrifying. He’d only been to SDCC because he’d had a contractual obligation to appear there whilst he was filming Star Force. Now Star Force was over, but still lived on in the hearts of the fans, and it was Belle who had persuaded him to accept the invitation to the  _Journey Home_  convention in Paris.

“It’ll be fine,” she’d said to him. “It’s a larger con, but it’s a fan con, not a full industry con. All the people who’ll be going will be fans of Star Force and of the characters that are being represented. It’ll be friendly, I promise.”

Gold trusted Belle. He wasn’t quite sure if he trusted the convention yet, but he trusted Belle, and knowing that she was going to be there to protect him if necessary made it a lot less nerve-wracking.

The hotel room door opened and Belle came inside, kicking off her shoes and wiggling her toes in the carpet before coming over to him at the window and slipping her arms around his middle.

“How was it?” he asked.

“Good. Everything seems to be very well-organised so far. Everyone I met is really excited, and they’re so happy that you agreed to come. They’re quite honoured and giddy that you chose this to be your first fandom convention.”

“Well, I just hope I won’t let them down.”

“I’m sure you won’t. I’ll be right there with you. Not on the stage whilst you’re answering panel questions, obviously, you’ll have to get through that one on your own. But I won’t be far away. You can do this, I know you can. And if you do find the experience incredibly traumatic, then you don’t have to do it again.”

“I’m holding you to that, you know.”

Belle just laughed, going up on her toes to kiss him. “Of course you are. Now, shall we order some food? Flying always makes me hungry; they never feed you at the right times on the long hauls. I’m tempted to take my own sandwiches on the flight home.”

Gold made no response to that and moved over to the phone to place their order, and they ate sitting on the bed watching French TV until sleep began to overtake them. Tomorrow the convention would begin, and Gold knew that he was going to need to be at his sharpest.

X

Gold woke to the feeling of gentle fingertips dancing down his spine, and soft lips pressing butterfly kisses against his shoulders and the back of his neck. He gave a grunt of appreciation, readjusting his head against the plush hotel room pillow and steadfastly refusing to open his eyes.

“I know you’re awake, Rum,” Belle whispered in his ear. Her hand left his back and crept around over his hip, slipping one finger under the waistband of his boxers and teasing closer to his half-hard cock. “You can’t pretend to be asleep and hide from the day under the duvet, you know.”

“I can try,” Rum grumbled, but it was hard to maintain a facade of grumpiness when Belle’s hand was cupping him, rubbing gently. They had been too tired from travelling to make love last night, despite their romantic surroundings, but after a good night’s sleep his body and mind were more than interested in the proceedings. He gave a groan of protest as Belle removed her hand, and he flopped over onto his back to meet her sly grin.

“You have a convention to go to,” she said, planting a kiss on his lips.

“Do I have to?”

“Yes. I promise that we can stay in bed all day on Monday once it’s over.”

Gold sighed. “You certainly know how to make deals,” he said. “Where did you learn that from?”

“After four years of making various agreements with you in order to keep both of us sane during your make-up process, I’d say that I learned from the master.”

Gold smirked and pulled her down for another kiss, skimming his hand up under her camisole to her breast, rubbing his thumb over her nipple till it puckered under his touch and she gasped against his mouth.

“Rum, we’ve got places to be.”

“Surely we don’t have to be there just yet,” he replied, before capturing her mouth again. “You know, we’re in the city of love after all. And I can’t exactly go to a convention with a raging hard-on, can I? If you think about it, you’ll be doing me a favour.”

He pushed up her camisole and began to fondle her other breast. Belle’s eyes fluttered closed as a little moan of pleasure escaped her lips.

“I guess… as long as we’re quick…”

Gold gave a huff of laughter and kissed her neck. “We’ll skip breakfast. There’ll be food at the convention.” He paused. “There’d better be food at the convention.”

Belle laughed, throwing the covers back and straddling him, pulling her camisole up over her head.

“Don’t worry, they’ll take very good care of all their talent.”

“I think you’ll take better care of me though.”

Belle rubbed up against his cock, making him groan with the sensation. He could feel the heat of the core even through the layers of their clothing, and there was something in her eagerness that brought him surging to full hardness in a matter of moments.

“You’re so wonderful,” he said, cupping her breasts again and palming her nipples before bringing his hands down to her hips, toying with the waistband of her panties. “Even when you’re jetlagged and your partner’s being ridiculously stubborn about conventions.”

“You’re going to be fine,” Belle said. “Now just relax, forget about the convention for a little while, and touch me.” She grabbed his hands, bringing them round to her ass, and Gold slipped his hands inside her underwear, squeezing her buttocks. Belle wriggled on top of him.

“I want more, Rum,” she huffed, rubbing up against him again and rising up on her knees to shove his boxers down unceremoniously, freeing his cock and curling her fingers around his length. “I want to feel you.”

Gold dug his fingers into her skin as she moved the sensitive head of his cock against her gusset, tracing the line of her slit through the fabric. She was already wet, he could feel the damp spot on her panties, and he threw his head back in pleasure at the sensation.

“God, Belle, I want to feel you too.”

“Maybe if I ride you hard enough, I’ll scramble your brains and you’ll stop worrying about the con,” Belle purred. She let go of his cock for just long enough to get her panties off, but then she was back, touching herself with his dick, slipping her fingers into her wet cleft and opening herself up for his gaze, pressing the very tip of him against her swollen clit and shivering at the sensation it gave.

Gold reached up to catch her fingers, rubbing his own over the little nub.

“Let me touch you,” he rasped. “Ride me hard enough to scramble my brains, and I’ll make you scream.”

Belle’s smile as she lined his throbbing cock up with her entrance was a wicked one, and it sent a fresh jolt of arousal straight to his groin. As she sank down onto him, enveloping him in her tight, slick heat, Gold closed his eyes. Yes, this was definitely the right way to begin a convention. If he could just stay in this moment for the next two days, then everything would be well in the world.

Then Belle began to move, rocking her hips back and forth as she took him as deep as she could, and coherent thought began to fade. All he knew was that he wanted to make Belle feel as good as she was making him feel, and he kept rubbing circles around her clit, desperate for her to reach the edge with him. He wasn’t going to last; he never did when they had sex first thing in the morning and Belle had teased him to glorious distraction. His hands faltered as he felt the pull of his orgasm begin in the pit of his stomach, and then he was crying out Belle’s name as he spilled inside her.

“That feels good, doesn’t it?” she crooned, her movement slowing but still rocking gently as he began to soften inside her. Gold could only nod dumbly.

“Very good,” he finally managed to say, and as he slipped out of her, he pressed his thumb against her clit again, making her writhe against him where she was braced against his abdomen. “Come with me, Belle. Come for me. Let go.”

He reached up and pinched one of her nipples, and Belle moaned loudly, her hair falling around her face in a messy curtain as she kept moving, her hips quivering with arousal and her building pleasure until she finally came with a long, low groan. It was quite possibly the most erotic thing that Gold had ever heard in his life, and the slack-jawed expression of bliss on her face was truly a thing of beauty.

Belle flopped down against his chest as she rode out the high, and Gold put his arms around her, pulling her in close.

“The very best way to start the day,” she murmured against his chest. They lay together for a while, unmoving with damp skin sticking them together, until Belle finally looked up.

“You know, we do have somewhere to be,” she said. “Don’t think that you’ve fucked me so hard I’ve forgotten that we’re going to the convention.”

Gold wrinkled his nose. “Damn. I was hoping for some orgasm-induced amnesia there.”

“It’s going to be good. Honestly, you’ll have a great time, I promise. I’ll be right there with you to hold your hand during the scary parts.”

Gold gave a huff of laughter at the image, but he had to admit that knowing he wasn’t going to go through it alone certainly made him feel better about the whole thing.

“All right,” he grumbled, rolling them over and reluctantly pulling away from her warm embrace. “I guess I should probably take a shower and attempt to look vaguely presentable and not make it obvious how I started the day.”

He got out of bed and Belle turned back onto her front, kicking her legs in the air in a way that would have looked innocent had she not been sweaty and naked.

“I don’t suppose I can get you to join me?” he asked hopefully.

“Oh no. You know what will happen if we both get in that shower.”

“I know, I’m counting on it.”

“You can’t be late, you know,” Belle said sagely. She pulled the covers back up, covering herself primly. “It wouldn’t be very good form for your first convention. No-one would invite you back.”

“Maybe that’s the whole point.”

Belle just raised an eyebrow at him, and Gold knew that the battle had been lost. He made his way towards the bathroom. There would be time enough for fun in the shower later.

X

As conventions went, this was a fairly large one considering it was a single fandom convention rather than a larger industry event incorporating many different guests from different TV shows and fandoms. By the time they arrived, people were already milling around in the centre and it was clear that they’d been there for a long time, probably queuing up for a while before the place had even opened. She knew how incredibly lucky she had been to be able to get an full access pass, since although she was heavily involved in the show and a credited part of the production team as well as technically being an actor, she had not been invited to appear at the convention in her own right. She was one of the invisible people behind the scenes; absolutely crucial to the smooth running of the day to day production, but never seen or spoken to, and taken for granted by the viewers and fandom at large even if not by the actors and producers who saw her every day.

It would be nice to have a big convention dedicated to all the production team, Belle thought. Hearing about the lighting and the make-up and the computer effects would be just as interesting as hearing about all the escapades on set and what the actors thought of their storylines and characterisations. Alas, that was probably a long way off yet.

The convention was just getting underway, with the guests having been welcomed and the first panel, consisting of Emma and Killian, now underway in the main auditorium, and Rum didn’t need to be anywhere for another half an hour when he would be signing autographs. For now, Belle was content to wander through the convention centre and look at some of the merchandise stalls that she hadn’t had chance to see during check-in the previous evening.

She checked her phone, looking through the convention tags and seeing her own name crop up in a few mentions. It had been good to finally meet some of the people she’d first interacted with online in person.

_Owlish-Archer: Arrived at the Journey Home convention and met up with the amazing @bookworm-with-a-brush! Tomorrow I get to meet Rum Gold and Emma Swan in the flesh; I’m so excited!_

_Fluffyunicorn: @owlish-archer didn’t you already meet Rum Gold on a plane a couple of years ago?_

_Owlish-Archer: Well, yes, but this is different! This is official and neither of us will be sleep-deprived! I mean, it was great to meet him but it was a bit embarrassing._

Belle smiled and closed Tumblr, heading towards the private rooms sectioned off for use by the invited convention guests. Rum had been very pleased to find that breakfast had been provided, and when Belle found him he was chatting to Elsa. It was her first fan convention outside of her native Canada, although she had made a couple of appearances at SDCC before, and it seemed that the two of them were enthusing over the quality of the croissants and coffee. Rum had a panel with Elsa later, and one with Emma the next day, and Belle wondered if they were going to discuss the best way of handling whatever questions might be thrown at them.

“I like these little cons,” Elsa was saying. “I used to go to all the ones back home, before I started acting. There was always such a great atmosphere among all the fans and it’s just the same coming at it from the other side of the camera. Everyone’s always so enthusiastic, and I think that makes me more enthusiastic about the whole thing too.”

“Hmm.” Rum didn’t seem entirely convinced by this philosophy. “I don’t think I share your view. I mean, I’m happy that people are so enthusiastic and excited about it, don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly grateful that they enjoy what we do to the extent of holding conventions about it even after the show’s finished airing and has been for a while. I just find that it can all be a bit overwhelming.”

“You’ll be fine,” Elsa said. “You’ve got Belle to protect you at any rate. She knows what it’s all about.”

Belle smiled; that was indeed true and the entire reason that she had come here in the first place to give him moral support. Straddling the line between fan and talent in her own right, she was best placed to guide Rum through the entire process and ensure that he could see the convention from the fans’ point of view as well as his own.

They continued to chat to Elsa for a little while longer, until it was time for autograph signing to get underway. That not being something that Belle was particularly interested in, knowing all the cast already as she did, she stayed in the waiting room with Elsa, who had begun checking Twitter.

Presently she gave a snort of laughter.

“Oh, this is priceless,” she said. “Zelena’s fans are throwing a hissy fit that she wasn’t invited to this convention. Have they forgotten that she’s currently in jail?”

“You never know, they might have found some way to set up a live video link to Maine Correctional Women’s Center. When it comes to Zelena, the phrase ‘if there’s a will there’s a way’ springs to mind.”

Belle couldn’t say that she was at all displeased by the turn of events that had led to Zelena’s incarceration. It had been a long and difficult court process, but justice had been served at last, and Rum and Robin were both very glad to see the back of the woman who had caused them so much misery over the years.

“Here’s a good one though,” Elsa said. “Maybe you could get this one trending on Tumblr. There’s a poll going around about people’s favourite guest stars throughout the series. I guess that’s different for us. I mean, my favourite guest star was Ursula Del Mar because she was great to work with, although I didn’t even have any scenes with her, but she had a comparatively small role in the scheme of things.”

“Yes, I suppose we tend to remember people more from what they were like off-set rather than on it. I’m betting John Luther will win. He was my favourite guest star.”

“That’s only because you won an Emmy for his make-up job.”

“Well, that’s one of the reasons, yes.”

Elsa looked at the poll results so far.

“Yeah, John Luther’s winning but Ingrid Andersen’s a close second. I liked Ingrid. She was really sweet off screen but as soon as the camera rolled she flipped that switch and became absolutely terrifying.”

Ingrid had starred in a couple of episodes as Elsa’s character’s mother, including one episode in which most of the cast was subjected to horrifying hallucinations which twisted their nearest and dearest into the worst versions of themselves in an awful Coraline-style Other World.

“Who’s in third?”

Elsa laughed out loud. “Chistery.”

“You can’t call Chistery a guest star!” Belle exclaimed.

“I know, he wasn’t played by anyone and he was just computer generated with stock sound footage of monkeys played over the top.”

“No, it’s not that! He’s not a guest at all! He was a recurring cast member! He starred in more episodes than Sean did!”

Elsa thought about it for a long while, before beginning to count up episodes on her fingers.

Belle just smiled, and began to wonder who Rum’s favourite guest star was. She didn’t think she’d ever discussed it with him.

Maybe the answer would come out later today. Even though she knew all the cast so well, there were always interesting little snippets of information to be found out at conventions…

X

Hanging around in the corner of the room where the meet and greet was being hosted, Belle wondered if anyone would approach her, or if anyone would recognise her. A couple of the people she had spoken to at registration had asked if it would be possible to get photos of her and Rum together, a picture of Lacey and Stiltskin. Whilst there wouldn’t be anything official, Belle couldn’t see the harm in it if that was what the shippers wanted. She was here after all, so she might as well interact with them. She was one of them herself; she knew intimately how much the character of Lacey and the relationship between the doctor and his wife meant to the fandom.

“Erm, hi Belle.” A cosplayer dressed in Lacey’s dark blue medical centre uniform came over to her, looking a little bit nervous. “Is it ok to ask you something?”

“Of course. I love your cosplay, by the way.”

“Thank you! I’ve been hoping to find a Stiltskin somewhere to have a photoshoot. I’ve seen a couple around but I can’t seem to track them down. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I thought you did a great job playing Lacey, I know it must have been difficult coming from the other side of the camera, but you were fantastic. And I was just wondering, since there are already rumours about doing a follow-up movie or a reunion, would you come back as Lacey if they did do one?”

“I haven’t really thought about it, to be honest.” Belle was surprised that she hadn’t, but there had been so much else going on that she hadn’t given the possibility of future Star Force endeavours any mind. It was one of the most important pieces of her past by a long margin, but it was in the past, and she hadn’t really seen it in her future. She knew that there was talk of something in the pipeline, but she knew from other fandoms how much fans enjoyed speculation and wishful thinking. She was guilty of it herself. “I think I would, as long as she didn’t have too much screen time. I know it’s strange because I was never really meant to play her in the first place and if Claire hadn’t had her fall, she’d be in the role, but I do feel like she’s my character now.”

Another fan had come over and was hanging around listening to the conversation, evidently wanting to speak to her as well, and Belle waved her over.

“This is kind of a personal question,” she began. “But since you and Rum are together, and you have such fantastic chemistry on screen in just one scene - was that a part of why you were cast, do you think?”

Belle laughed. “Yes, I think so. It was Rum who suggested that I played the role because I’d been rehearsing all his lines with him in the make-up room. Of course, it’s always easier to make kissing scenes look authentic when you are actually dating the person in question. But we’re all professionals, and if I hadn’t done it then one of the regular extras would have done just as good a job, I’m sure.”

“It wouldn’t really be the same though. There’s something about the fact that you were plucked from behind the scenes because you had this great chemistry with Rum that makes it that much more special.”

Belle supposed that with the benefit of hindsight nothing was ever the same. If she had said no to Rum’s suggestion and if an extra had been brought in at the last minute to do the scene, then no-one on the outside would be any the wiser and she definitely wouldn’t have been standing here having these conversations with people.

“Is it weird, kissing on screen?” someone asked.

Belle shook her head. “Not really. I kind of forgot the camera was there, to be honest. The montage scene in the nursery was harder as that was the first one we shot, and I had to keep reminding myself not to look directly into the camera. Rum and Mal were really helpful, though. Actors do need a good director to make sure that they get the best out of their performances, and not-actors need one even more.”

“Are there any plans for a Star Force reboot?”

“Not that I know of. But never say never, after all.”

She continued to chat to the fans as they waited for the crowd around Rum to dissipate a little, and then she resumed her previous aspect watching everything that was going on in the room. She certainly hadn’t expected to receive so many questions, but she was always happy to talk about her time on Star Force, both in front of the camera and behind it.

“Do you have any Star Force memorabilia?” someone else asked. “Is what they say about actors looting the sets and props after filming wraps true?”

Belle laughed. “I don’t have anything personally, but some of the actors took their props home with them after filming finished. Rum took Dr Stiltskin’s ‘Galaxy’s Best Doctor’ mug. In fact, he didn’t wait until after filming had finished to take that, he was constantly taking it away from the set and the properties team had kittens every time they found it missing.”

It wasn’t entirely true; Belle did have a few pieces of memorabilia bought solely in her capacity as a fan, rather than someone affiliated with the show, but there was no need to get into quite that level of detail. Being somewhat Internet famous as she was, she knew that she needed to be careful about what she shared with the public at large, knowing that it would be disseminated on Twitter and Tumblr soon enough. Over time, as part of her active role in fandom, she had ended up sharing quite a lot of her life with her followers, but now that she was ‘out’ so to speak, she had decided that it was time to be a lot more discerning if she wanted to retain any semblance of a private life.

Eventually the meet and greet came to an end and the stars were ushered back to their waiting rooms until the next event was to take place. Belle slipped away, going back into the main convention room just as a new panel was about to start, this one consisting of Mary Margaret and David. The two of them had just finished filming a new series of their latest project together, a superhero series which pitted them as rivals against each other, Mary Margaret being cast against type as a dark supervillain and David as the world-weary hero trying to stop her nefarious plans. Belle enjoyed the series and it was especially interesting to see the couple’s dynamic changed. They had played lovers on Star Force and they were lovers in real life, but their characters in the new series shared a relationship that had split the fanbase completely, with half citing the undeniable chemistry between them and desperately hoping that romance would occur, and the other half desperately hoping that the romance wouldn’t occur. Belle wasn’t invested enough to really care which camp won out.

Most of the questions directed to Mary Margaret and David were about their Officer Snow and Lieutenant Charming’s relationship, and about the rumoured demise of Charming in the series finale.

“Yes, it was originally written that Charming would die,” David confirmed. Belle wondered what kind of a reaction that would have online. Aurelius and Leo had always remained notoriously tight-lipped concerning the last minute hasty rewrite that had taken Zelena’s character out in such an unceremonious fashion, but none of the cast had ever received a gag order telling them not to talk about it.

“There was a beautiful scene with Stiltskin comforting Snow,” Mary Margaret lamented. “As horrifically sad as it would have been, I was really looking forward to exercising my dramatic acting muscles in that scene.”

“Rum wasn’t though, they were going to need to waterproof his make-up,” David mused.

“Yeah, I think if they’d had to do that he might still be green today…”

Belle had to stifle a giggle at the memories of her conversations with Aurelius and Leo about how waterproof she could make Rum’s make-up. The thought of getting  in the shower with him to make sure that it was all scrubbed off properly crossed her mind, and she smiled to herself before pushing the thought firmly to one side and continuing to listen to the panel. That was a thought for another time. For now, she would content herself with bathing in nostalgia as she listened to the rest of the cast’s reminiscences about their time on the set.

X

Waiting for Rum to get out of the shower, Belle sat down on the bed and checked her Tumblr feed. As expected, it was full of people talking about the con and sharing all their pictures from the day.

_Elfinlady: Two for the price of one at the meet and greet! Not only did I manage to get some pictures with the amazing Rum Gold, but Belle French @bookworm-with-a-brush was there as well! Both were really lovely people and Belle complimented my outfit._

_Owlish-Archer: You do look amazing. Everyone at the con’s been really great. I can’t wait for tomorrow!_

It was strange seeing herself in so many pictures on her dashboard, and possibly a little disconcerting when she realised just how far she had come since the days of her Tumblr anonymity. There was absolutely no chance of that now, but she really didn’t mind all that much. She’d met several wonderful people today who had known her firstly and foremost from Tumblr rather than her stint on the screen, and in a way it had helped her feel more like she belonged at the con in her own right rather than as just another visitor. She was there for a niche market, certainly, but she had her own little group of fans.

She had fans. She was never going to be able to get over that. People had seen her on TV and as a fandom, they had decided that her performance, despite not being a trained actress by any manner or means, had been in line with their own perceptions of Lacey. Lacey, who had been a ghost for so long that an entire mythos had been built up around her character, one whom no-one had expected to see on screen. It was only looking back that Belle realised just how much pressure there had been on her to deliver a Lacey that lived up to the fans’ expectations. Obviously she’d felt the pressure at the time, but that was because she had been so closely involved in the fandom and the Laceskin storyline and fanfiction scene. She had completely forgot about the general public who would also have formed impressions of Lacey based on the titbits of information that they’d received about her over the years of the show’s run. To have met some people who weren’t in the Laceskin fandom at all but who had still praised her for bringing the character to life was a big thing.

She flicked down to the next post, showing pictures of one of the convention goers with Graham and Elsa.

_I got pictures with my ship! Even though Officer Arendelle and Officer Hunter never officially got together on the show, I still maintain that there was something going on between them… Graham and Elsa were both really sweet. I asked Graham if he was going to get ‘not dying’ written into all future contracts of his. He said he was seriously tempted but his agent probably wouldn’t let him get away with it, which is a real shame. He deserves a happy ending more often!_

Poor Graham, his survival of Star Force hadn’t turned into a trend and he was back to biting the dust in most of his roles. Belle thought that he must be rivalling Sean Bean for on-screen deaths by now. She refreshed her dashboard; a grainy video of Rum and Elsa’s panel had been uploaded and she hit play.

_“Elsa, Officer Arendelle was your first breakout role outside of Canada, and most of your experience before had been acting alongside your sister. How was it for you?”_

_“It was scary at first,”_ Elsa admitted. _“I was in a new country, I didn’t have any experience of a production anywhere near as big as Star Force was going to be. I’d done fantasy and green screen before for_ The Snow Queen _, but there was something about the scale and budget of Star Force that could be quite overwhelming. And obviously, I didn’t know anyone, whereas for most of my previous big acting jobs, Anna had always been there. But everyone was really welcoming and made me feel at home as much as they could, and I soon settled in and made some great friends. But yes, it was very daunting at first.”_

_“This question is for Rum, about Stiltskin’s back story, as obviously it was in that episode that we really got that sense of the friendship between Stiltskin and Arendelle and saw how well the two of you work together on screen.”_

Rum bowed as much as he could from his seated position.  _“Thank you.”_

_“My question is, how much of Stiltskin’s backstory did you know before that episode? Did you always know that there was such tragedy in his past?”_

_“I knew a little, just the bare bones of what the writers had told me, because when you have so much trauma in a character’s past, you have to be able to put that into your performance from the off so that it doesn’t come as too much of a jarring shock to the viewers. I mean, we wanted the full extent of the terrible tragedy on Dharkastil to be a shock, but we didn’t want the viewers to turn around and think that the way Stiltskin had behaved up until that reveal had been inconsistent with a person who had suffered massive trauma. So I knew that he had lost his family very suddenly, and I knew that for whatever reason, he was a refugee and unable to return to his home planet, and he’d been on the receiving end of a lot of prejudice as a result of that. I wanted to build that into my performance, the fact that he’s pretty thick-skinned and snarky, but at the same time, he has this almost maniacal desire to save lives and he can’t bear more casualties if he can possibly save them. I think that first came out in the episode with the freezing virus, where he’s working tirelessly to save the indigenous aliens on the planet they visit and is desperate to save Arendelle’s life as well.”_

The video sound quality dropped at that point, and Belle turned it off. She had been in the room for the panel, she didn’t know why she was rewatching it now, but she did love to hear Rum talking about his relationship with the character that had made him so beloved.

“So, how’s the whirlwind of social media reacting to the convention?” Rum asked, coming out of the bathroom in his towel, looking deliciously tousled. If it wasn’t for the fact that Belle had appointed herself the keeper of their itinerary for the weekend, she would seriously consider ripping the towel off and jumping on him, tracing that little trickle of water that was running down his chest with her tongue. She bit her lip and turned her attention back to Tumblr as he began to get dressed. They had arranged to have dinner with Graham and Emma as the two of them would be heading back to the States as soon as the con finished, and it would be nice to catch up in a social environment without the pressure of fans around on all sides.

“It’s been a pretty positive reaction so far,” Belle said. “Most of the bad apples who might cause trouble haven’t come, since Zelena wasn’t invited they’ve no real reason to be here, so all in all it’s turning out to be quite sedate. Everyone I follow seems to be very happy, at least. It’s the usual thing. They’re all star struck meeting their heroes and a little shaken when they turn out to be ordinary people.” She paused. “I know the feeling. I was a complete wreck before I met you for the first time, and I work in the industry.”

“Hmm.” Gold came over and sat down on the bed beside her whilst he tied his tie. “Any incredibly unflattering photos of me?”

Belle just batted his arm. “Stop that. And no, all the photos are very flattering. Here, look at this one.”

They flicked through the tags for a little while, but then it was time to go and meet Emma and Graham. The restaurant they were meeting at wasn’t too far from the convention centre, which had the possibility of fans being in there and recognising them, but at least meant that they didn’t have to go too far and wouldn’t get lost in the middle of Paris.

The other couple were waiting for them when they arrived, and once they were seated, conversation naturally turned to the convention.

“I love these kind of cons,” Emma said wistfully. “Everyone’s always really enthusiastic and you can always tell the die-hard fans. It’s lovely to meet people who have so much passion for everything, even when the series itself finished airing over a year ago. Fandom is not dead.”

“I don’t think that the fandom for Star Force will ever die,” Belle said. “It might be waning a little, but there’s always going to be a core who’ll keep it alive.”

“And you’re one of them,” Graham added.

Belle felt the heat rising in her face. “Well, someone has to keep the flag flying, and why not me? If the creators can show as much passion as the fans about something, then that’s sure to keep people interested. Star Force was such an important time of our lives, for all of us.” She reached across the table and took Rum’s hand. If it hadn’t been for Star Force, then they might never have met, and the same went for Graham and Emma, and David and Mary Margaret, who’d established themselves as a couple even before the first season had finished airing.

“It’s the fans who keep these kinds of things alive,” Emma agreed. “I don’t think that we would ever have made it past the first season if we hadn’t had the following that we did. A lot of good things came out of Star Force. We really need to be thankful for it. So many things might never have come to pass. I know that there are some roles in your career that you’ll always be associated with and I don’t know whether this is going to be one of them for me, but I could never regret anything about my time on Star Force.”

There was something in the look that passed between Emma and Graham that made Belle wonder, and the fact that Emma had passed up on wine made her wonder even more, but she didn’t say anything. If there was anything in it, then they would make the announcement themselves soon enough.

“I think Rum’s going to be remembered for his role,” Graham pointed out. “The outlandish make-up jobs always get remembered.”

“Yes.” Rum didn’t sound all that enamoured by that fact. “No, it’s true. For all that I might have complained about the make-up over the years.”

“And don’t I know it,” Belle added. Rum just sighed, and Belle blew him a kiss.

“For all I might have complained about it over the years, Stiltskin has been a great character to play and I certainly can’t say that he hasn’t relaunched my career.”

“Yes, considering you went straight from Stiltskin to winning a Bafta for your next role, I don’t think that you can hold too much against him.” Emma raised her water glass. “A toast. To Star Force and all the good things it brought us, and will continue to bring us in the future. And to the fans that made it all possible.”

“To Star Force and its fans,” Belle echoed.

The conversation took a natural turn away from Star Force as they continued to eat, moving on to forthcoming projects in the works. Belle was still at Storybrooke Studios working on Leo and Aurelius’s new project  _After Ever After_ , but one of her favourite books had just been greenlit to be turned into an epic adventure film, and she was really hoping to be able to win the make-up pitch for that. Graham was auditioning for the upcoming pilot season, hoping for a role in some kind of gritty police procedural that would keep him around for at least a few seasons before killing him off. Rum was looking to work with Ella and Mal again on another directing project.

“I don’t have anything coming up,” Emma said when it came around to her. There was a distinct awkwardness in her manner. “I’m taking a break for a while and being a housewife.”

Rum raised an eyebrow. “If there’s one thing that I don’t think you’d ever be happy doing it’s being a housewife,” he said.

Emma shrugged. “Circumstances change.”

It was becoming ever clearer what the changed circumstances were, and Belle finally managed to catch Emma’s eye. The other woman gave a little nod and a nervous smile.

“Ten weeks,” she mouthed. Belle just grinned. Throughout all of Star Force’s filming, there had been various bets going on among the production team about whether there would be any Star Force babies during their time on set. This one was a couple of years late, but she felt it still counted. She surreptitiously placed a finger to her lips, telling Emma that the secret was safe with her until she and Graham chose to reveal it to the world, but at the same time, she couldn’t help smiling like a loon for the rest of the evening at the good news.

It was getting late by the time they returned to the hotel, but Belle was still very bright and awake, the adrenaline from the day’s events keeping her going even into the evening. Sadly, it didn’t look like Rum was feeling the same way, as he flopped down onto the bed with a sound akin to a balloon with a slow puncture. Belle clambered on beside him, shuffling closer on her stomach until she could lean over him.

“Come on,” she said. “Don’t give up now. You’re halfway through. Just one more day to survive, and then we can go sightseeing and forget the world.”

Rum gave a grunt and finally opened one eye, looking up at her.

“And spending all of Monday in bed,” he reminded her. Belle rolled her eyes. “You promised!”

“All right, all right. But are you sure that you don’t want to go out and see all of Paris’s sights? The Louvre? Notre-Dame? The Eiffel Tower?”

“We can do all that on Tuesday.”

Belle gave in with good grace; she was certain that once the con was over and he no longer had to worry about it, Rum would be a lot more amenable to going out and about and enjoying the rest of their holiday without the fears hanging over him.

As they snuggled down to get ready to sleep, Belle couldn’t help smiling to herself, wondering about what the final day of the convention would bring.

X

Rum woke to a discreet knock at the hotel room door, and all his hopes of beginning this morning in the same fashion that he had begun the previous one were dashed when he cracked open one eye and saw Belle, fully dressed, flit across the room on light feet to open the door and accept their breakfast delivery.

“Come on, sleepy head,” she said, bringing the tray across to him and getting back onto the bed, sitting down cross-legged on her pillow and beginning to tuck into pastries and preserves. “It’s Sunday, everything’s going to be fine, we have freshly baked croissants, and the sun is shining.”

Gold levered himself into a sitting position, scrubbing his hands over his face and staring at the croissant that Belle handed him as if it was an alien species. When he didn’t take it, she shrugged and bit into it herself.

“Well, you never were a morning person,” she said.

“Neither were you,” Gold pointed out. “The number of times you accidentally dunked your make-up brushes in your tea was astounding.”

“Yes, yes, there’s no need to bring that up. As it stands, I’m the one who’s awake and ready for the day and you’re the one who’s still in bed.”

“You could get back into bed,” Gold wheedled. Belle just looked at him.

“Don’t give me the puppy dog eyes,” she said.

“I’m doing nothing of the sort!”

“Yes you are, and you know you are.”

Gold sighed. It was clear that he was going to get going and face the day, and he poured himself a cup of coffee from the French press on the breakfast tray. If he was being totally honest with himself then the convention had not been as bad as he had been expecting it to be. It was well-organised, and although there were a lot of people there, there were nowhere near as many as there were in San Diego, so it wasn’t quite as overwhelming experience. Everyone he’d met during the previous day’s events had been very happy to see him at the convention and had expressed their hope that he would continue to do the convention circuit after this first experience. He didn’t think he was quite ready for this to become a regular engagement just yet, but at least it hadn’t put him off the notion of doing any further cons later on down the line. Belle would be happy about that at least, but he wasn’t going to tell her just yet. He wanted to reserve judgement until he got to the end of the weekend. After all, there was still another day in which things could go wrong.

“Nothing is going to go wrong,” Belle said, and Gold looked up sharply. Had she read his mind?

“It’s written all over your face,” she explained. “How you managed to get this far in life whilst being so incredibly pessimistic is beyond me.”

“Well, I’m used to it,” Gold grumbled. He took a sip of his coffee. “It’s only comparatively recently that I’ve been able to borrow your optimism and it’s got a lifetime of conditioning to go up against.”

Belle leaned over and pressed her lips gently against his forehead.

“Everything’s going to be all right,” she promised him. “Remember, I won’t be far away, and I’ll be thinking of you the entire time.”

There was a distinctly husky note in her voice, and Gold wondered if she would be thinking of what she was going to do to him later once the con had finished. He gulped. He knew that he was certainly going to be thinking about it, whether or not that would be to the detriment of his performance in the panels and photograph opportunities that were happening today…

X

Just as he had done the previous day during his panel with Elsa, Gold couldn’t help but feel a little bit more daunted than he usually did at SDCC when he was sitting on the stage with Emma and a French interpreter. At SDCC the entire main cast was there and usually he could try to fade into the background a little, but here, with only himself and Emma, there really wasn’t anywhere to hide. The questions would be coming for him, and he couldn’t let his more outspoken co-stars take the limelight.

All the same, he knew that Belle was somewhere out there in the crowd, even though he couldn’t see her face, and that thought made him feel much more confident about his ability to handle this panel. She had every faith in him and had promised to be his support network throughout this convention, and even if everything else went pear-shaped, he knew that he would meet up with her again after it was all over and she would nurse his wounded pride.

Soon enough, the questions began.

“Rum, what was it that originally drew you to the project, especially as you were only supposed to be a guest star for a couple of episodes? Why do you think that you became such a fan favourite?”

“It was the concept of the entire thing that attracted me at first,” Gold replied. Even now, he could still remember reading the pilot script that his agent had sent him. He hadn’t ever intended to take on the role as a full-time, five year commitment, but as soon as he had reached the end of the script, he knew that it was something that he wanted to be a part of for however short a time he might be involved with it. He had not been at all disappointed when the writers had expanded his part after test audiences and studio executives alike reacted negatively to Stiltskin’s death.

“I liked the idea of these people stuck out in space who aren’t really meant to be there, and I liked the interpersonal dynamics. It’s not that they don’t know what they’re doing, it’s more that they don’t know each other, so whilst they are in perilous situations a lot of the time, the drama and the emotional heart of the show comes more from the dynamics between the characters rather than any external influences. And of course, the character of Dr Stiltskin just leapt off the page at me, right from his first entrance. I don’t know how he became so popular.”

“I think it was probably something to do with the way you play him,” Emma commented. “He wasn’t really in the first few episodes all that much as he’d never been intended to live past episode five, but when he started getting more material that you could really get your teeth into in episode seven, I’m sure that was when the audience started thinking that Stiltskin was more than just the token alien character that they threw in to allow for some interspecies tensions. That was the episode where we saw Stiltskin’s real emotional core and the driving force keeping him going, and it could have been really hammy and overdone but you played it very well.”

“Thank you. I think Stiltskin struck a chord with people in the same way that Commander Leyah did, as they were both the characters who had a real reason to get home and were always going to pursue that, even if some of the other characters might not have been so invested in it. Ultimately, it was Stiltskin and Leyah who the audience were rooting for to get home despite the odds because that reunion with their respective families was so important to them and at the core of their characterisation.”

“I have a question for Emma. Staying with the family theme, what was it like working with your son on the show? How was it seeing him grow up on the set?”

Emma laughed. “It was really strange because even though we were both there and involved in the show throughout its run and Henry was in a lot of episodes, we only actually had a handful of scenes together, in flashbacks and when we were finally reunited in the Christmas special and then actually reunited in the finale. I think that made it more difficult in a way because I wasn’t acting opposite him with any regularity, so I couldn’t get used to it because I wasn’t with him all day every day. Although it made it a bit harder to act with him, I think it made it a bit easier to be his mom when we weren’t acting. Because I wasn’t with him all the time on set, it was more like he was going out doing his thing and I was going out doing my thing and we’d just meet up off the set and be like a normal mom and son.”

“This question is for Rum. Is there any part of Stiltskin’s backstory that you would have liked to explore more of?”

Gold sighed. It was a difficult question because there was so much of Stiltskin’s life that had been left unexplored, especially as his back story had only been revealed in the middle of the show’s third season, so even once he had a story to work with, there hadn’t been all that much time to work with it. Together, he and Belle (with the occasional help from Mal and Ella when they’d had too much to drink) had pieced together so much of Stiltskin’s life before and after Star Force that he couldn’t remember what was officially canon and what were things that had just been made up between them.

“I’d love to have explored Stiltskin’s relationship with his sister, Nimue.” The character in question had only appeared in two episodes and it was clear that the two had been very close before her death. “I think it would have been nice to have seen Stiltskin interacting with his fellow Rumplurians more. And obviously, since Lacey was always Stiltskin’s primary driving force, it would have been nice to have seen some more of their early relationship. I think in a way it made the show more powerful, always keeping her as this ghost in the background who was never seen. If she was always around and about then it wouldn’t have had the same impact on the viewers. But then again, I might just be biased.”

It wasn’t a secret among the audience that he and Belle were together and had been dating since before Belle had stepped into Lacey’s shoes, so he felt no shame in mentioning it. There was a ripple of laughter around the hall, and Gold thought that he had done the right thing.

“So, do you guys see each other regularly now that the show has finished?” someone asked.

“We try to keep in touch,” Emma said. “We were really quite a tight knit group whilst we were filming, I think it was because we were generally all on the same sets all the time with the core group of cast interacting closely for most of the scenes, it wasn’t like we had a large ensemble cast who were all in different places, it was a comparatively small set we had to play with and with that physical proximity, you have to get along with people and we all just gelled really well. It would have been terrible for us to have lost that once we all went our separate ways. I mean, Rum here keeps jetting off all over the world making Oscar-winning films so we don’t see him as much, and we’re all no longer based out of Storybrooke, but we do keep in touch. I think we ought to have a reunion at the studios. Maybe on the fifth anniversary of wrapping filming or something.”

Gold thought about it for a while as Emma went on to answer another question about her favourite piece of Star Force merchandise (plushie Chisterys). It had been nice to meet up with people again here at the convention, and it would have been even better if he hadn’t been worrying about public appearances all the time. Maybe a reunion was the way to go. After all, Leo and Aurelius hadn’t ruled out a follow-up film yet.

He was brought back to the present with someone asking him another question.

“Rum, Stiltskin is such a unique and iconic character; where did you draw your inspiration from when it came to your acting choices for him?”

“I think from the off I wanted him to be as alien as possible. Obviously with the make-up, as soon as you see him you know that he’s not human, but I thought that if he looked alien but was standing around and gesturing and posturing in a way that was human and was speaking with a Glasgow accent, it would take away from the alien-ness of his appearance somewhat and he’d be reduced to something that was more ‘human with a make-up job’ rather than ‘alien’. I really wanted the audience to be completely immersed in the Star Force universe and not have anything that would suddenly jar them out of that reminding them that it’s all a fiction. When it comes down to the particular choices for his accent and mannerisms and all the other small things that come together to make a character, I really have to thank our long-term director Cara Mallory for that, as she always encouraged me to do more, to think bigger and bolder. It’s really just a question of trying to make Stiltskin different from the rest of characters as much as possible, but not the extent where he stuck out too much as an oddity. He was audacious, but he did work seamlessly with the rest of the crew in spite of that, or perhaps because of it.”

The time on the panel was drawing to a close, and Gold had to breathe a sigh of relief at how well it had gone.

“Ok, our last question for today, for both of you. What fictional thing in the Star Force universe would you really love to be real?”

“The beaming technology,” Gold said without hesitation. That was a nice easy question to finished the panel on, and he almost felt like laughing out loud with the harmlessness of it. “I’m not the world’s biggest fan of flying. Travel would be so much easier if someone could just teleport you to wherever you wanted to go. Emma?”

“I want a flying monkey,” Emma said wistfully. “Or maybe one of those unicorns that we found on the Eden planet back in season two. Any of the extraterrestrial animals, really. They all look so cute considering that when we’re filming with them, they’re really just one of the production assistants waving around tennis balls on sticks. Post-production did a great job on the design and now I really want one as a pet. Dogs and cats just aren’t the same when you’ve been used to unicorns and flying monkeys.”

The interpreter thanked them for their time and answers, and the panel drew to an end to the audience’s applause. As he left the stage, Gold thought that he caught a glimpse of Belle towards the back of the hall. The scariest part was over now, and he knew that he would be able to get through the rest of the day without any worries.

X

“It’s all over,” Rum said with a satisfied sigh, leaning back against the hotel room door and closing his eyes with a smile. Unseen, Belle rolled her eyes.

“You know, I don’t think that you found it half as bad as you make it out to be,” she said. “I think a small part of you enjoyed it really.”

Rum opened his eyes and gave her a sheepish look.

“All right,” he conceded. “I might be warming up to the idea of conventions.”

“Good. I’m glad that you had a good time. Well, that you didn’t have as terrible a time as you were dreading having.” She paused, and gave him a cheeky little smile. “You know, I think that there’s something else that might make you warm up to the idea of conventions,” she added.

Rum raised an eyebrow, moving away from the door as she backed up towards the bed.

“And what might that be?” he asked. There was the slight hint of a growl in his voice, that husky note that usually preceded mind-blowing and enthusiastic sex. Belle could only hope that she when she made her suggestion, she didn’t put him off in his tracks.

“Well, there were a lot of cosplayers out in force today,” she said. “And I definitely saw more than one couple who had dressed up as Lacey and Stiltskin.”

Rum nodded. “I think I might know where you’re going with this, but go on anyway.”

Belle reached the bed by that point and sat down, taking Rum’s hands and interlacing her fingers with his.

“How would you find the idea of introducing a little roleplay to the bedroom?” she asked. “We  _are_ Lacey and Stiltskin after all. That’s one of the things that people have kept saying this weekend, that they can’t imagine anyone else in the roles and that if Star Force ever comes back, they hope that we come back with it.”

Rum looked thoughtful for a long time, but he didn’t pull away from her, and the little smirk at the corner of his mouth told Belle that he was at least considering it.

“I seriously hope that you’re not suggesting I put the make-up on again,” he said eventually.

“God no,” Belle said hastily. “Not when I’d have to be the one to apply it and it would take about ten hours to do your whole body. Not that I would have complained if you’d had a nude scene in Star Force when it was airing. I don’t think anyone would have apart from you.”

“I would have complained extremely bitterly until the writers got so sick of me glaring at them through the writers’ room door that they removed said scene,” Rum agreed.

Belle laughed. “I can just see that, you know. Every time they look up they just see you peering in through that little glass panel in the door, looking murderously angry.”

“If it made my feelings clear, then I see no harm in it. Mal and Regina might have been a bit annoyed if I was constantly hanging around outside the writers’ room instead of being on set though.”

Rum slipped his hands out of hers and sat down on the end of the bed beside her.

“But since the make-up is off the table, I don’t see why we shouldn’t slip into character once more.” He leaned in to kiss her, a slow and sensuous kiss full of deep promise, and when he spoke again, his voice held the fluting tones and strange modulation that he had always used for Stiltskin. “My little dove.”

Little dove was Stiltskin’s nickname for Lacey. It had been mentioned once in passing and the fans had run with it, as they had done with every single breadcrumb of information about Lacey that they could glean, and the writers had taken it on board and made it official canon in subsequent episodes. It sent a little shiver of anticipation down Belle’s spine to hear it again. She supposed that in a way, they were acting out one of her many fanfics in which Lacey and Stiltskin were finally reunited. If Rum was up for it, then she was more than up for it.

She slipped her arms around his neck, pulling him in for another kiss.

“Did you miss me, Stila?” she asked coyly.

“More than anything.” He trailed his lips along her jawline and down her nick, pecking at her collar bones, and Belle threw her head back under his touch, revelling in every moment of it. “Why don’t I show you how much I missed you, my lovely, lovely Lacey?”

“Yes,” Belle breathed. “Oh, yes, please. I’ve missed you so much, I’ve missed your lips and your tongue.”

Rum pulled away from her, a cheeky little glint in his eye.

“Ask and you shall receive, my sweet. If it’s my lips and my tongue that you want, then my lips and tongue you shall get.”

“Yes,” Belle said. She kicked off her shoes and scrabbled further up the bed so that she could lie back against the pillows, and Rum followed her once he’d discarded his own footwear. “Show me how much you missed me, kiss me all over.”

“There are four years to make up for, after all,” Rum added, pushing her skirt up and coaxing her legs apart. “I had probably better get started if I’m going to make up for four years of missed orgasms. Unless, of course, you had a little fun without me.”

He pressed a kiss to the inside of her thigh, and Belle gasped.

“I did have a little fun on my own,” she confessed. “But you were always on my mind whenever I touched myself.”

“Likewise, little dove. Likewise.”

His tongue darted out to lick a stripe up the gusset of her panties, and Belle wriggled on the bed, wanting to feel him against her properly. Rum chuckled.

“So very eager.”

“You said it yourself. There’s a lot of orgasms to make up for.”

“I don’t intend to disappoint, my love.” He reached up and began to pull her panties down, achingly slowly, peppering her mound with kisses as he did so. Finally the underwear was off, and Rum buried his face between her thighs with rough abandon, kissing and licking at her folds. Belle gasped with the intense sensation of it all, feeling his lips and tongue all over her, seemingly everywhere at once and never stopping for breath. He lapped at her clit relentlessly, every touch bringing her closer and closer to the edge. Her fingers were tangled in his hair, keeping him down there, greedy for more and more.

“Feels so good,” she panted. “Your mouth always feels so good.”

She felt, rather than heard, his laugh, but then he was back to kissing her, swirling his tongue around her clit and then lapping along her folds again. Belle couldn’t believe how far he had come since they had first begun sleeping together and he had been hesitant to use his mouth on her. Not that she hadn’t always had wonderful orgasms on his fingers, but when he started to go down on her, well, that was something completely different and utterly wonderful, and he had only grown in confidence over the years.

She felt one of his long fingers press up inside her, petting at her inner walls as his tongue continued to stroke her outside, and then another joined it, stretching her gently and hitting all the right spots.

“Yes, Rum, yes, like that, right there, so good…” She’d completely fallen out of character, but she really didn’t care, not when she was so close to her climax and it was happening in such a wonderful fashion.

Belle cried out as she came, her thighs shaking uncontrollably on either side of Rum’s head, and as he carefully pulled his fingers out of her, she could see the smug grin on his face, her juices shining on his mouth. He licked his fingers slowly, releasing them with an obscenely loud, wet pop, and Belle just lolled her head back with a groan. He really knew how to tease her when he wanted to, and it seemed that today he definitely wanted to. Perhaps it had come as a result of him being so highly strung about the convention all day, now he felt free to relax and enjoy himself to the full.

“Are you convinced of how much I missed you?” he asked. Stiltskin’s fluting tones had gone by the wayside, his voice too husky with arousal and lust to be able to keep it up any longer.

“Oh yes,” Belle said. “Very much so. And if that didn’t convince me, well, I think this does.” She reached down and touched the tented front of his trousers, where the bulging zipper showed how turned on he had become just from tasting her.

“What can I say?” Rum shrugged. “You’re always so damn delicious, my love, I can’t help the effect that your sweet honey has on me.”

Belle beckoned him up between her legs. “Come back up here and let me show you how much I missed you, my Stila.”

She hooked her arms around his neck and pulled him in for another deep kiss, and then she pushed him back a little so that she could shuffle up into a sitting position, pulling off her top and shedding her bra in short order afterwards, her nipples already hard and pert and aching for attention. Rum covered her breasts with his hands, massaging them gently.

“I missed these as well,” he said, tugging on her nipples and making Belle hiss with pleasure.

“They missed you too. And I missed yours.” She made quick work of his shirt buttons, spreading the two halves to slip her hands inside and scratch her nails over his chest, catching his nipples and making him groan. She smirked and did it again, and his hands on her stilled.

“I think it’s my turn,” she growled, sliding her hands down his body to his belt, and past it to cup his heavy crotch. “I really think that we need to do something about this.”

Rum was all too eager to help her get him out of the rest of his clothes and discard the skirt bunched uselessly at her hips, and once they were both bare, Belle brought her hands back down to his cock, jutting proudly in front of them, the tip flushed dark and ready for her touch. She stroked him casually up and down, long and languid strokes in the way she knew he enjoyed, and Rum could only grunt in arousal at the feeling of it, bracing his forearms against the bedhead. Belle rolled his balls in her palm and he swore under his breath.

“Do you want to be inside me?” she purred. “Did your cock miss my tight little pussy?”

“So much, little dove. So much.”

“I guess you’d better come on inside then.” Belle took his cock and lined him up with her entrance, wrapping her legs around his back and encouraging him to thrust. He went in slowly at first, filling her up in the best way, but once his hips began to move and snap forward, and once Belle’s body began to roll with his, their pace increased, both aching for that sweet release.

“Come with me again,” Rum growled. “I want you to come while I’m inside you.”

With his arms taking most of his weight and giving him leverage to thrust, he couldn’t touch her easily, but Belle was more than happy to help out, snaking one hand down between them to where they were joined and pressing a fingertip against her swollen clit, already tender from her first orgasm and more than ready to provide a second. She tumbled over the edge again, her inner walls clutching at Rum’s cock as he followed her over the edge only a few moments later, her channel milking him dry as he continued to give shallow little thrusts until he was completely spent.

Still panting, coherent thoughts and speech still a little way beyond them, Rum pulled out of her and Belle turned them over so that they were lying on their sides, curled up together in the aftermath as the sweat cooled on their skin.

“Well, that was certainly something,” Rum said eventually. “You know, I think we ought to bring Star Force into the bedroom a little more often.”

Belle smiled against his chest. “I’m definitely not averse to that.”

It was too early to go to bed properly, but there was time for a nap before they had to get ready for dinner, and Belle closed her eyes as Rum’s arms came around her and pulled her in close. This convention had definitely been a satisfying one in all senses of the word, and if this was what she got as a result of persuading Rum to come to a con, then she was absolutely going to do it again.


End file.
